The Art Of War: Barack Obama used party rules to foil Clinton

[Segami]

Its become pretty embarrassing to continue hearing Hillary Clinton's repetitious speech menu that consists of a steady diet of " I'm more qualified & prepared to be Commander and Chief than Obama " diatribe when in fact, he snookered her from the get-go of these campaigns and she or Bill didn't even see him coming.

Now, call it whatever you want to call it, but from where I'm standing, I see Obama as a candidate who came here to play hard and win and he wasn't taking any prisoners. I see a candidate who did his homework and came prepared and trusted & allowed his campaign strategist to unveil a stealthy iron-clad ground-game with precise patience.

He is definitely a force to be reckoned with and has made all these unfounded claims of " lack of leadership or experience " against him by Hillary become moot. How can she continue with the same tired rhetoric against Obama when in fact, it is HER, HILLARY & The CLINTON Machine he has beaten, the very same person claiming to have all this talent and experience to lead and command this nation into the future, yet, she & Bill were caught with their pantsuits down and now the chase is all but lost and over in the coming days. There is a lot more to leadership than just going about town pounding a single message into everyone's nugget that you can lead and are more experienced than your opponent but then you allowed yourself to be snookered by the very same rookie you've been criticizing all this time. One thing for sure, Obama WON'T be snoozing away when the call comes in at 3:00am, but I can't say the same for Hillary,.......that I can't.



Excerpt:


" WASHINGTON (AP) -
Unlike Hillary Rodham Clinton, rival Barack Obama planned for the long haul. Clinton hinged her whole campaign on an early knockout blow on Super Tuesday, while Obama's staff researched congressional districts in states with primaries that were months away. What they found were opportunities to win delegates, even in states they would eventually lose.

Obama's campaign mastered some of the most arcane rules in politics, and then used them to foil a front-runner who seemed to have every advantage—money, fame and a husband who had essentially run the Democratic Party for eight years as president.

"Without a doubt, their understanding of the nominating process was one of the keys to their success," said Tad Devine, a Democratic strategist not aligned with either candidate. "They understood the nuances of it and approached it at a strategic level that the Clinton campaign did not."

Careful planning is one reason why Obama is emerging as the nominee as the Democratic Party prepares for its final three primaries, Puerto Rico on Sunday and Montana and South Dakota on Tuesday. Attributing his success only to soaring speeches and prodigious fundraising ignores a critical part of contest.

Obama used the Democrats' system of awarding delegates to limit his losses in states won by Clinton while maximizing gains in states he carried. Clinton, meanwhile, conserved her resources by essentially conceding states that favored Obama, including many states that held caucuses instead of primaries.

In a stark example, Obama's victory in Kansas wiped out the gains made by Clinton for winning New Jersey, even though New Jersey had three times as many delegates at stake. Obama did it by winning big in Kansas while keeping the vote relatively close in New Jersey.

The research effort was headed by Jeffrey Berman, Obama's press-shy national director of delegate operations. Berman, who also tracked delegates in former Rep. Dick Gephardt's presidential bids, spent the better part of 2007 analyzing delegate opportunities for Obama.

Obama won a majority of the 23 Super Tuesday contests on Feb. 5 and then spent the following two weeks racking up 11 straight victories, building an insurmountable lead among delegates won in primaries and caucuses.

What made it especially hard for Clinton to catch up was that Obama understood and took advantage of a nominating system that emerged from the 1970s and '80s, when the party struggled to find a balance between party insiders and its rank-and-file voters.



cont'



http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D91018RO0&show_article=1

[cliffordu]

1. list up some of those arcane rules he used to foil the clinntens....

sounds like you think he cheated.

I like a guy who could dismantle the most powerful family in politics, and crush the machine they spent decades building.

And he NEVER called her a liar for the Tuzla "misspeak"

[Segami]

3. Absolutely did NOT cheat!...He played by the rules and now he's reaping the fruits from his efforts.

[VolcanoJen]

16. Obama never played as dirty as some of actually wish he'd had.

He's surprised me at every turn. He was given opportunity after opportunity to slay her candidacy and chose not to, despite conventional wisdom and conventional politics.

Cheers to Obama for making the last cynic in the room proud. :toast:

[Segami]

19. He conducted himself as a champ. He could have delivered some below-the-pant-suit low blows, but he

chose to stay the course of cleaner politics even though there have been times I, myself, would have wanted to see him strike back hard.....but he didn't. Cheers to Obama.

[VolcanoJen]

21. The fact that she survived Bosnia SniperGate alone....

... only makes Obama look better. :D

[Segami]

23. How can any of her supporters trust a person who demonstrates hard-core stubborness?

She has resisted all calls of advice from some elder statesmen who have called her to withdraw and live to fight the battle another day. If she were President, would she do the same as George and resist tempered sound advice from her advisors? this can be a very dangerous trait to be showcasing.

[VolcanoJen]

30. It's more dangerous than many of us realize.

I'm concerned she's laying the foundation for a Third-Party run, built upon the "founding myth" she and Bill are attempting to sell.

[Segami]

31. The scary reality here is she is the only candidate who most people

would finger as the most likely person to take such measures and plot a route as a " Third Party run ". She knows her time is nearly up and with it, she will enter the history books as the political upset candidate of the last century.

[VolcanoJen]

32. Entering the history books is the plan.

Does it really matter much, if you're the President or the Spoiler?

I'm, ummmm... concerned.

[FlyingSquirrel]

35. Lieberman did it. Why wouldn't she?

[KSinTX]

2. In the clash of the titans

Obama takes Clinton back to law school. This DNC/DLC feud has become a grassroots v corporate slugfest. I am so pleased to see the people winning. If this feeling takes hold imagine what will come when we retake our lives. Mortgages, food costs, gas efficiency and energy industries will come within our grasp.

[AtomicKitten]

4. There are no flies on Obama. He's got skillz. ;)

[OzarkDem]

5. Too bad he can't beat McCain

Like a Chicago machine politician, Obama is good at defeating members of his own pary in the primary. Defeating the GOP, not so much....

[Swamp Rat]

6. Obama will obliterate McCain.

[Segami]

7. I think when this nomination process is put to rest, the gloves will come off and Obama will dribble

around town using McCain as his ball.

[OzarkDem]

10. With what?

Obama's speeches are getting stale. He can't do public policy, becuause he contracted out his position statements and has almost no federal legislative experience.

Independent and other Dem voters who are old enought to have seen one or two presidential elections know he's all rhetoric and hot air. There's not much left for him to do but defend himself against the onslaught of negative publicity that the GOP is going to send his way.

[cliffordu]

13. Are you here lobbying for McCain??

Sure sounds like it.

[Segami]

14. Maybe you haven't heard the bell ring but Obama just knocked out your champ with smarts and honesty

and not fear-mongering disinformation like some panic-stricken others with their backs to the wall.

[Think82]

15. You seem like you're bitter and clinging to a gun right now.

Anyone who knows anything about presidential election knows that speeches are the politicians main tool, and that the candidate with the most delegates wins

[sakura]

17. Ageist much?

Stop conflating age with wisdom. People aren't voting for Obama simply because they aren't "old enough to have seen one or two presidential elections." People of all ages are working for Obama. I've been voting for 24 years-- I've voted in every election since I turned 18, and I've volunteered for every Democratic presidential race. I've been around the block and can clearly see he's the best candidate out there.

The fact that younger people happen to agree with my assessment tells me that amazingly they haven't given in to the cynicism you demonstrate. Imagine you are age 20 or so. What would your first political memories be? Asking your mom or dad about a blue dress and what blow jobs are? Asking your parents how the new president was able to steal the election? The fact that the twenty-something crowd isn't as cynical as you are is truly a miracle.

[VolcanoJen]

20. And that's what's up.

Word.

:thumbsup:

[sakura]

24. Back at ya.

:)

[cliffordu]

26. Word.

[TheWraith]

33. Wish I could recommend a reply.

Bravo.

[sakura]

34. Thanks.

You're sweet. And I don't mean anything -ist by that.

[VolcanoJen]

18. I'm always so amused that you're quick to play the "ageism" card....

... while hiding behind the "sexism" card at every possible opportunity.

"Oh those kids today!!"

Funny how the "kids" are now in their forties, eh?

[ebayfool]

28. ... get off my yard, you damn kids!

Sometimes old enough does NOT equate with wisdom - sometimes it is just plain old rigid, stuck-in-the-past, unwilling to step into the future.

BTW, he's managed to defend him quite nicely against the onslaught of Team Hillary. He's just warming up by now, & will handle the 'old enough' McCain just as handily.

And yeah, I'm old enough to say that.
Now ... get off my yard, you damn kids!

:rofl:

[muryan]

8. Although I'm sure you are salivating at the thought of Obama losing the GE

It just won't happen, we both know it...you just choose not to admit it because it goes against your reputation as a Hillary zealot.

[KSinTX]

9. I'm not worried. McCain will beat McCain.

No intricate machine needed.

[Patchuli]

11. And you know this how? nt

[cliffordu]

12. Fail, much??

[ebayfool]

22. Sounds a bit like Dean's 50 state strategy, doesn't it?

The Dean way - fight for gains in every state as opposed to the old (dare-I-say?) DLC way ... going for the low-hanging fruit & easy pickins'?

He didn't assume it was his & he's worked for it. I want to see that same energy & smarts being applied on the Presidency ... not someone who thought we were all low-hanging fruit. We've already had that for way too long.

Imagine ... a POTUS that is willing & ABLE to plan & execute policy like this. It's gonna be great!

[Segami]

27. I agree and I bet he even knows what the current price of milk costs. I don't believe for one

second that he is disconnected from the roots of the common person. I hope only the best for his future success and that he drives our nation to enter a new period of growth, maturity and prosperity for us ALL to share and be part of for years to come.

[sandnsea]

25. These aren't arcane rules

This is proportional representation so the most dedicated voters have a stronger voice and can't be overhwelmed by "Operation Chaos" type scenarios. It's like saying the electoral college is arcane if the opponent was too stupid to know it existed.

[dkf]

29. You know that whatever Obama gets us into he will understand everything

he needs to in order to ensure success.

What is interesting is he understood things better than Hillary and Hillary has gone through this twice before! If you don't learn enough by doing the damn thing twice, and then you FAIL at the third time, how can we have any confidence whatsoever?

Seriously, asking us to give Hillary the benefit of the doubt is asking too much!

[Segami]

36. She was caught flat-footed and before she realized that a foot race was in progress, Obama blew

right by her. In a nutshell, thats what happened. She underestimated her opponent Obama and was caught up with the swelling hype leading up to this nomination race as advisors told her that this race was in the bag and the process was just a formality. It reminds me of the children's fable, the race between the Tortoise And The Hare. Her big flub was thinking she was unbeatable and deserving of this nomination. So much for the 3:00am call and being ready, I think she would have pressed the snooze button and gone back to bed convincing herself that it was nothing than a dream.